Jump to content

Cécile McLorin Salvant


Late

Recommended Posts

I saw her in concert and didn't care for her. All of Sarah's excesses. It's weird because I would describe her singing in the same way as I might describe Cassandra Wilson's but I really like Cassandra. (Saw them within in about a month of each other. )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I was thinking the same thing about her youth. I think her commitment to (and real understanding of) the songs will change -- as they would for anyone in their early-twenties. I think she's 23 or 24  -- something like that. Still, tremendous voice, style, and choice of material IMHO.

Edited by blind-blake
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I kinda know what you mean, Jim. I have wondered if the choice of songs, for instance, is her own of if she has "handlers" who do the choosing for her. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt and hoping she is the real deal. Regardless, she is a great singer with a really unique and appealing (for me, anyway) style. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw her at the Lycee Francais Cultural Center last January or February (2014).  It was kind of an accident, since I don't generally care for vocalists.  The tickets found their way into my possession, so...

No surprise (knowing me), I didn't care for her.  Too - I'm trying to think of a good word - flamboyant?  Whatever; it says more about me than her.  

About that time the hype machine started spinning, with features in every magazine and newspaper and regular (presumably paid) radio features.  Big turn-off.  blind-blake's mention of "handlers" strikes me as the off-putting phenomenon I was dealing with.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw her three years ago at the Detroit Jazz Fest and was very impressed with her tone, phrasing, range and charisma.  I imagine that Mark Stryker may have been there, and I was in the front row.  It was before she released her Mack Avenue debut, and I knew almost nothing about her (I may have known that she'd won the Monk competition).  If you don't like her singing, that's one thing, but it's absolutely silly to be suspicious of her because of her white-framed glasses, for Pete's sake.  She likely received some good press from winning the Monk competition and Mack Avenue promotes their artists well, but she is the real deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's absolutely silly to be suspicious of her because of her white-framed glasses, for Pete's sake. 

Oh no, not silly at all. I've earned all my phobias through hard-won negative life experiences. White framed glasses and big heads for sure (although to be fair, Gayle King got that shit down to a science, man, but otoh, she's somebody on my TV every morning, that's as far as that's gone, going, and/or will go, and check it out, she variate that shit up with some depth of compulse,, not some impulsionized fllittygirl fashicue). Or conversely, sorta, people whose eyeglasses are too big for their heads, to where they look like they got tv picture tubes on their heads (and again, props and cred to GK for keeping the proportinality within the aesthetic realms of propertiety). Nuh-uh, not dropping my guard there, no sir, not gonna happen. You feel free to welcome them in your world, they'll be there instead of in mine, win/win for everybody, you, me, them, everybody, all at once, at the same time. Also people who are too skinny for their age and who lean forward just a little too far when they introduce themselves with a handshake. These are all things to assess before readily/fully enthusiasing. and there are more, so many more....

Not silly at all.....grrrblllplxlfssssssss.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't see the white eyeglass frames as an affectation or anything else for that matter.  Close your eyes and keep your ears open to the voice.

Caught her at the Miniaci Arts Center at Nova University in Davie, FL, this past May.  Performance was uneven, partly because she is arcanely eclectic, e.g., choosing an Ethel Waters obscurity that left me cold.  However, when she sings more familiar material, e.g., "I Didn't Know What Time it Was", she swings.  Her stage manner is wonderful, her explanations as to why she chose each number were definitely appreciated by a very receptive audience.  Thumbs up!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
  • 2 years later...

She's performing in Boston this Saturday. I have heard OF her, but not her, so I played a few of her songs on youtube, and was surprised to find a singer in the Jeanne Lee vernacular. In other words, she has studied Lee's phrasing, tone, the whole thing. Her piano players do the Ran Blake thing. For people who'd never heard Jeanne Lee, she will definitely sound like an amazing original. I wonder if she's been asked about emulating Jeanne Lee, and what her responses were to that. I think she has talent, but the Jeanne Lee thing is almost too much for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/31/2015 at 11:33 AM, BeBop said:

I saw her at the Lycee Francais Cultural Center last January or February (2014).  It was kind of an accident, since I don't generally care for vocalists.  The tickets found their way into my possession, so...

No surprise (knowing me), I didn't care for her.  Too - I'm trying to think of a good word - flamboyant?  Whatever; it says more about me than her.  

About that time the hype machine started spinning, with features in every magazine and newspaper and regular (presumably paid) radio features.  Big turn-off.  blind-blake's mention of "handlers" strikes me as the off-putting phenomenon I was dealing with.  

Was Philippe Baudoin accompanying her?   (I know he did somewhere in France.) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Dmitry said:

She's performing in Boston this Saturday. I have heard OF her, but not her, so I played a few of her songs on youtube, and was surprised to find a singer in the Jeanne Lee vernacular. In other words, she has studied Lee's phrasing, tone, the whole thing. Her piano players do the Ran Blake thing. For people who'd never heard Jeanne Lee, she will definitely sound like an amazing original. I wonder if she's been asked about emulating Jeanne Lee, and what her responses were to that. I think she has talent, but the Jeanne Lee thing is almost too much for me.

Funny that, in a few posts, she has been labeled as "strongly rooted in" (and to some extent, "copying from") Sarah Vaughan, Cassandra Wilson and Jeanne Lee. Cassandra Wilson and Jeanne Lee styles may converge at some point, but definitely Sarah Vaughan is another thing.

If you do not like vocal jazz, that is ok for me. If you do not like white framed glasses... [insert sentence]. But, definitely, she is the most talent vocalist to emerge in 20 years.

Edited by EKE BBB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...